Tor Browser

Network surveillance and traffic analysis is becoming a real issue. Nowadays, you can't visit a website, without worrying that someone, somewhere, is logging your activity. VPN applications can hide your real IP address, but most of them are expensive and they can slow down your Internet connection. Tor provides a much better solution. It bounces your connection through a distributed network of relays from all around the world. The software can prevent anyone from learning your physical address or browsing habits, without a significant impact on your connection's speed.

Tor is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and it doesn't need to be installed. All you have to do is extract its files from a 7Zip archive and run its executable. The software is free and open source. The relays, through which it redirects your connection, are run by volunteers, from all around the world. If you wish to support the project, you can become a volunteer yourself.

When launched, the software will connect you to the Tor network automatically and it will launch a Firefox Portable-based web browser, on which you can surf the web anonymously. The web browser looks and feels just like Mozilla Firefox, but it displays additional options on a toolbar. You can use these new options to allow or forbid scripts, manage cookies, customize your own proxy settings and more. A new identity can be requested at any time, by selecting one of the aforementioned options. This will change your IP address in just a few seconds.

Before launching the web browser, Tor will display a small control panel, with options for connecting or disconnecting to the network, viewing a map of the network, displaying a bandwidth graph, logs and more. The network map should give you a general idea on the size and complexity of the Tor project. A large number of relays and connections are displayed in separate lists and they are also illustrated on a map of the world.